Shrouding the Heavens: The Years I Was the Empress's Strictest Master

In the tub, Li Qingjue, who had failed five or six times to open her Sea of Bitterness, nodded forcefully. She closed her eyes once more, cast aside every distracting thought, and focused all her attention.

At that moment, the medicinal bath had begun to take effect. Countless streams of vital essence flowed through the channels of her body, surging through her limbs and bones.

Only by exhausting all her strength did she manage to guide a thread of essence toward the barrier of her Sea of Bitterness!

This time was completely different from her previous attempts.

She poured all her obsession into the intent guiding that thread of essence!

Boom!

It was like a deafening blast that split heaven and earth, yet it did not come from outside. It originated within her body, and only she could hear it.

In her inner vision, the sea of nothingness that had once been hard as rock, as deathly still as eternity, had been pierced open by a tiny point.

"Ah..."

At that instant, unimaginable agony swept through her entire body, as though her whole body were being torn apart from within.

Her frail body convulsed violently. She clenched her teeth so hard that blood seeped from her gums.

Yet after the initial outburst, she stubbornly relied on sheer ruthlessness toward herself and did not let out another scream. Only from time to time did an utterly suppressed whimper squeeze from deep in her throat.

Opening the Sea of Bitterness was the beginning of the Human Body Secret Realm's path of cultivation. It was, by nature, an act against the heavens.

Especially for a Mortal Body, it was no different from carving out a spring from the core of a stubborn rock. The pain far exceeded what ordinary people could imagine.

"Steady yourself. Guide that strand of vitality, hold the sea eye firm, and endure for a quarter of an hour."

Just as Li Qingjue was about to reach her limit, her master Tan Lin's voice sounded again, cold as ice and perfectly timed.

There was an unquestionable authority in his voice, suppressing the instinctive urge in her mind to collapse.

Li Qingjue's body shook violently, but she followed his instructions.

The process was slow and agonizing. Every breath of time seemed stretched into a year.

Her body gradually trembled like a winnowing basket, her face pale as paper. At any moment, she seemed likely to faint again.

Whoosh!

The Bronze Ring floating before her shimmered with a clear radiance.

An almost imperceptible trace of Primordial Spirit power drew in spiritual energy and sent it into her body, protecting her heart meridians and helping stabilize her foundation, yet without directly interfering in the process of opening it.

On the path of cultivation, no one could walk in another's place.

Time slowly passed, and violet qi came from the east beyond the cave dwelling.

At some point, Tan Lin's remnant soul had manifested outside the ring. He was not merely a guide or a teacher.

By observing her path, he could gain insight into himself.

Who knew when today's realization might prove useful to him.

At dawn, the excruciating pain in Li Qingjue's Sea of Bitterness finally receded like the tide.

A Sea of Bitterness roughly the size of a fingernail, deathly still yet stubbornly nurturing a faint trace of life, had finally been opened within her body.

She collapsed weakly in the wooden tub, gasping for breath. Her entire body was soaked, and she could not even move a finger.

Yet in her open eyes, amid the crushing exhaustion, there was a glimmer of light.

She could feel it. That deathly silent Sea of Bitterness was weak, but it was real!

She, Li Qingjue, had truly stepped onto the path of cultivation!

"Your Sea of Bitterness has initially formed. You can barely be considered to have crossed the threshold of the Sea of Reincarnation Secret Realm."

Tan Lin looked at his young disciple. His voice remained flat, without the slightest hint of praise.

"But your Sea of Bitterness is deathly still and dim, far inferior to that of ordinary cultivators. This is the limitation of your Mortal Body's innate foundation. In the future, you will need to spend ten times, even a hundred times, the resources and effort of others just to make the slightest progress."

"Nannan... understands."

Li Qingjue's voice was hoarse and weak, yet incomparably resolute.

"No matter how hard it is... this disciple is not afraid..."

"Determination is a good thing."

Tan Lin shook his head, speaking indifferently.

"But if you treat suffering as normal, that is foolish. If there is a shortcut, why not take it?

"All things are difficult at the beginning. Now that your Sea of Bitterness has been opened, take out that Devouring Source Scripture..."

Deep Crimson Line

The entire morning quickly passed as Tan Lin expounded on the Dao.

Li Qingjue listened, utterly absorbed.

At the end, she tried circulating the Devouring Source Scripture, after her master had removed its traps, through one full major cycle.

However.

As she circulated the technique, some of her own doubts and insights occasionally surfaced in her mind. But she thought them wildly unrealistic, so she did not immediately share them with her master and instead set them aside for the time being.

Still, perhaps she could hide those little thoughts from others, but how could she possibly hide them from Tan Lin?

In the end, under Tan Lin's questioning, she naturally spilled everything out like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.

"..."

Inside the ring, Tan Lin drew in a sharp breath. Then, silently, he incorporated some of his young disciple's ideas into the improved Devouring Source Scripture and explained them to her.

But he knew that this was still far from the final version of the Heaven Devouring Demonic Art. She would need to walk that path herself, step by step, in her future cultivation.

Growl...

By afternoon, the rain had stopped outside, and the skies had cleared. The chirping of insects and birds was crisp and pleasant.

The cultivators flying through the skies and moving across the earth had also fallen silent, but Li Qingjue's stomach growled.

Beside the extinguished campfire, her little face reddened as she awkwardly glanced at the ring from the corner of her eye.

She was hungry...

From yesterday until now, she had survived only on the little bit of dry rations the villagers had given her.

Opening her Sea of Bitterness had consumed a great deal of energy as well. In truth, she had long been starving, her chest nearly pressed against her back, on the verge of seeing stars.

She wanted to look for food, but she was afraid her master would misunderstand and say she was slacking off in her cultivation...

Should she ask?

Li Qingjue thought this, but her master's severity had left a deep impression on her, and she did not dare disturb him lightly.

"If you're hungry, go find food yourself. What, are you going to stare blankly and wait for your master to conjure it for you?"

Tan Lin spoke coldly.

He had casually gathered spiritual herbs on the way back because of the limitations of her Mortal Body. Without medicinal aid, who knew how long it would take for her to open her Sea of Bitterness.

Thump...

Beside the fire, Li Qingjue instantly felt relieved upon hearing this and eagerly rose to her feet. Tan Lin's words were like an imperial decree to her ears; she automatically filtered out the barbs in them.

"Pack your things. Don't stay here any longer. Head north."

Tan Lin continued.

Earlier, his remnant soul's consciousness had connected to the Dao traces of the outside world, allowing him to sense the locations of those fragments of his true soul. One of them was somewhere a thousand li north of here, though the environment there was somewhat unusual.

"Yes..."

Outside, Li Qingjue answered and began packing her bundle.

In truth, she barely had anything: a ring, a booklet containing the Devouring Source Scripture, and a set of clothes she had long outgrown—the clothes she had been wearing the year her brother left.

That was everything she owned...

"Head north... head north..."

The girl murmured, repeating her master's instructions.

Once she left the cave dwelling, the north was nothing but endless barren mountains and wilderness, almost devoid of human habitation. Finding food would be a problem. No one there would give her anything.

But then again, she would not beg anymore.

She had seen the appearance of her master's remains. With such a lofty bearing and presence, now that she was his disciple and had already stepped onto the path of cultivation, how could she possibly beg again?

She did not want to make her master unhappy, not even a little.

Rumble!!!

Summer weather changed without warning. The moment she entered the forest, it had been sunny and calm; the next, wind and rain raged together.

Splash...

The mountain path had already been rugged and difficult. With the rain, it became muddy and treacherous, growing harder to traverse the farther she went.

In this desolate wilderness, amid the storm, things naturally were not easy for a little girl who had only just opened her Sea of Bitterness and had an empty stomach.

But she did not beg Tan Lin, nor did she stop to rest on her own, much less cry silently.

Since that night, she had sworn that she would never cry again.

In those eyes, which had endured two days of hopes born and extinguished, as well as repeated trials of despair, there now remained only toughness, numbness, and hatred...

Splash...

Rumble!

Lightning flashed and thunder roared.

"Huff! Huff..."

After struggling over a mountain, Li Qingjue was panting heavily. She gritted her teeth and used all her strength to prop up her weak body, peering through the curtain of rain toward the distance.

She vaguely remembered that there was a grove of wild fruit trees ahead. When she was little, her brother had taken her there to pick fruit and stave off hunger.

Step... step...

However.

After walking only a little farther, her legs felt as though they had been filled with lead. Every movement pulled at the aching muscles throughout her body, making her suck in a cold breath.

The rain blurred her vision, and she could no longer tell which way was which. All she could do was stumble blindly through the forest.

"Heh..."

Tan Lin's cold voice came from the ring.

"You can barely stand after walking such a short distance. Look at yourself. How are you going to take revenge?

"You still want to reclaim your brother's remains?

"What will you use to take them back?

"Is that all your hatred amounts to?"

His words pierced the girl's heart like needles.

Li Qingjue abruptly raised her head and glanced at the Bronze Ring, a spark of unyielding stubbornness and fierceness igniting in her eyes.

For some reason, whenever she thought her ears had learned to filter out Tan Lin's barbed words, he always managed to provoke her again.

Splash!

After being drenched for so long, her body had begun to shiver with cold.

She drew a deep breath. Instead of trying to stand up immediately, she simply crawled forward, inching ahead with her elbows and knees. Only then did she see that there was actually a cliff ahead!

If her master had not spoken just now, and she had stubbornly forced herself upright, one slight stumble would have led to unimaginable consequences.

"..."

At that thought, Li Qingjue's emotions stirred again.

She fell silent for a moment, then crawled toward the gentler woodland below the cliff.